Shoulder Dislocations/Instability

Sporting injuries can result in shoulder dislocations and instability. The ball of the shoulder rotates off of the socket, often becoming stuck in the front, back, or bottom of the shoulder joint. Usually this injury is accompanied by a tear of the labrum and stretch of the capsule of the shoulder. The labrum is a fibrous cartilage rim around the socket that keeps the ball more stable in the socket, and the capsule is a complex collagen sheet that surrounds the ball and socket joint, keeping it stable. Often the labrum tear can heal and capsular tissue can “tighten up” with conservative treatment, but sometimes surgery is required to repair these structures and stabilize the shoulder. On occasion, significant bone loss can occur from the edge of the socket, making the likelihood of a recurrence of instability high even with an adequate soft tissue repair. In these cases bony augmentation of the socket and sometimes the ball is often necessary to obtain the best result.